It was November 1st, 2020 when my life once again was turned upside down.

It was a chilly day in New York and I was five minutes late to my shift at a coffee shop near the apartment I shared with Logan and my best friend Hannah Smith.

Hannah and I met in our senior year when I moved to Florida. Turns out, being the new girls in school gives you an extra push in the friendship department. Since we were both really lost at school, we decided to go through the last year of hell together and have been inseparable ever since.

What else? Oh, right! Logan and his girlfriend from his freshman year of university, Julia, broke up a year later. Now he's dating Hannah, and yes, it's weird to live with a couple.

Now I'm in my sophomore at NYU. I'm studying psychology to become a psychiatrist.

You might be wondering what happened with my friends from The Town.

I stopped talking to them, it's that simple and sad.

I didn't cut communication exactly because I wanted to, because I didn't. At least, not really.

Most days I was too tired to even see through my text messages. Taking AP classes and extracurricular activities every day kind of makes a girl want to curl in a ball and die. But I didn't, of course, I just kind of stopped using my phone completely. I only used it for emergencies.

And then there's the fact that it's been three years since I last saw Shawn and to be honest, I miss him. I'm still not over him, even if I will never admit this out loud to anyone. So I never called because I knew that if I did they'd tell him or he would be there, making my feelings towards him even more obvious than they were in high school.

That particular day I was thinking a lot and I realized something very interesting, it was the three year anniversary of Shawn almost killing me. I still find it funny how that's the way our friendship began again.

Anyway, yeah, I was running late for work. Thankfully, it was an unusual thing for me so I would be excused this one time.

I opened the door of the little café and the bell rung, making it even more obvious that I was late. I quickly put on my name tag and waist apron and got to work. Today it was my turn to go through the tables taking orders and giving people their food. I got to work immediately.

It was a Sunday, which meant it was full. Work that day went in a blur consisting of bitchy costumers, the usual old woman who always asked for me to take her order because she liked my attitude, the same young mother I was friends with who came in with her hyperactive three year old boy and a group of college aged people who seemed to think they were in the street rather than in a café. The usual. Nothing changed, it was always the same.

Exhausted, I looked at the watch on my wrist. Three more minutes of misery and I was done. When I left to Florida all I had in mind was to get a job in order to help my parents pay for my education but never did I expect that it was so hard. Dealing with arrogant money stuffed teenagers and hearing toddlers cry for hours was definitely not how I imagined the workforce.

I was already preparing to leave when Hannah texted me. She was late and needed me to cover for her. Just my luck.

When I said Hannah and I became inseparable I wasn't lying. In senior year we did sleepovers and study sessions nearly every week, we drove to Georgia together on spring break. We basically did everything together so when she suggested we come to New York together I was nothing but excited. Then, by pure coincidence, we ended up getting a job at the same place. How we still stand each other even though we've been stuck like glue for the past three years, I don't know, but I don't question it.

I sighed as I put my small apron once again. Just ten more minutes and I'm out, I thought.

At this hour is when it's the calmest. The least amount of costumers come at this time, but I knew that in an hour or so that would change.

Ten minutes into my extra shift I hear the door ring. Because not much people were coming in and I was on cashier duty I was drinking a cup of coffee to hopefully get my will to live back. I didn't bother to turn around until the person who had just come in cleared their throat.

I rolled my eyes and turned around. The person in front of my had brown hair that was inside the hood of a sweater.

"Excuse me sir, but we have a policy of no hoods, no caps and no hats. Could you please take your hood off?"

The guy nodded and took his hood off. My eyes widened in shock, he still hadn't seen me but I had. Suddenly my hand went numb and the ceramic cup of hot coffee was released from my hand, breaking and spreading the hot liquid all over me.

"Crap!" I muttered under my breath. I winced as the coffee burned my skin. The guy suddenly looked up and his eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets when he saw me.

"Emma?" I gave him a weak and frankly still shocked smile. "The one and only. How are you Shawn? It's been a while." I tried to initiate conversation, try to keep it normal, but the pain of my eyes from the burn was clearly not lost in him.

"Are you okay?" I nodded, even though I wasn't. He nodded in response, not entirely convinced.

"So...you were going to order?" He shook his head, probably shaking the shock out of his head.

"Yeah. I'll take a black coffee to go, please." I nodded, disappointed that after three years all the talking he was interested in having with me was about ordering coffee.

I began making his coffee and I could feel his eyes on me the whole time I worked. I looked at him from the corner of my eye.

"You're staring at me Shawn." He laughed and I got to see his smile. That smile...how much I had wished to see it again.

"Yeah, um, I was thinking that if you have nothing to do after you get out of work maybe we can hang out?" I tried to hide my smile by turning around and grabbing his to go cup. I turned around and tried to control my excitement, which of course, I couldn't.

I heard the door open and it was Hannah, finally.

"Actually I'm out now. Just pay and we'll leave." I gave him a smile, one that I really hoped wouldn't give away my happiness of seeing him in New York.

After Shawn paid I introduced him to Hannah. At first he was a little surprised to have found out that my brother had broken up with Julia and was now dating Hannah. When he saw her look of guilt he quickly said, "Nah, I didn't like her anyway. You're a better match for him." It made her smile and I was glad I wouldn't have to come home to an argument about Logan and his ex girlfriend. If there was one thing Hannah lacked, it was control over her jealousy.

We started walking through the street, going to nowhere in particular. "Why were you wearing your hood? Are you hiding from someone?"

He laughed and looked down at his coffee. "Yeah, actually. I was hiding from you." I looked at him, confused, expecting him to explain. "I got into the art program at NYU and since I knew you lived near here I was a little afraid to bump into you."

I shook my head and laughed softly. "Wait, but why did you leave Savannah? Didn't you like it there?"

He took a deep breath, preparing to say something he'd probably said a lot lately. "No, the contrary. I love it there but... do you promise not to laugh at me?"

I walked a little faster to stand in front of him. I tilted my head and slightly lifted my arms. "I make no promises." He shook his head with a smile clear on his face.

"I decided to come here because of you. I...I don't know how to say this without sounding like a complete idiot but...I don't know. I guess I'm still not over you. I know I probably sound crazy right now but, do you think we could give it another shot?"

My heart fluttered, my stomach went on a crazy rollercoaster ride and my mind had been lost as soon as I saw him walk through the door. All I wanted was to say yes, but, what if he wasn't the same guy he was three years ago?

"Shawn... I'll admit I still have strong feelings for you too but we haven't spoken in years. How about this, we can start talking and try to become friends again. Then, maybe, I will put some more thought on your offer, but as of right now, well, it's been a while. We've both changed."

He wasn't looking at me, I'd broken him. First time we see each other since junior year and I leave him in the friendzone, again. Exactly like old times.

I took his hand and led him to the bench just a few feet away from us. "Hey, look at me please. Can we please talk? Like old times?"

He looked up with a bored look on his eyes. Something about his behavior told me I probably was the first person to reject him in a long time.

He gave me a fake smile and started to talk.

He told me about senior year at The Town and about my friends' current lives. I won't give you the whole gossip because I'd need a whole lot of paper but I will say the most important things in my opinion.

Long story short, Ashley got pregnant senior year and was working hard to get money while James was still finishing college. They stayed together and even though I always told Ashley that James had changed, I never truly believed it until Shawn told me that he used the money his parents gave him on a small apartment for his wife and son.

They got married last year, again, something I wouldn't have expected from James. I thought he'd become kind of like Barney in How I Met Your Mother. As soon as he was done studying, he'd become a house dad until Ashley finished studying.

Tamara ended up living with the Becker family. A few months into the last year of high school, Tami's mom became obsessed with the thought of getting back together with her ex-husband after they had a 'moment' at my going away party. He rejected her and she decided to end her life in one final overdose that left her daughter scarred for life.

Tamara decided to study business online while she gives most of her time to charities dedicated to helping those with drug and alcohol problems.

She and Vincent broke up in the beginning of senior year, also ending their friendship.

Vincent was studying mechanical engenearing when he decided to drop school and start working with the homeless.

But fate has a way of working things out so when Tamara was voluntearing to help the homeless she ran into Vincent, bringing back the old spark.

John and Kasey are still together and strong. They both study literature in England, something I would have never expected from any of them.

Michelle got herself a scholarship to her dream university. She attends some school where she is studying fashion design.

Finally, Michael went backpacking through Europe and fell in love in a girl in Germany. He's been living there ever since.

"All of them got their happy endings, Emma. Why can't we?" He said after telling me everything that happened in everyone's lives. I laughed at his insistence.

"I'll consider it prince charming."

It started getting dark so he decided to walk me home so I wouldn't have to go there alone.

We were a block from my apartment when out of a sudden he asked, "Did you ever finish writing that little guide of yours? The one you started writing in the journal I gave you before we left."

I shook my head. "No. But almost." He nodded.

"But it's like a book, right?" I nodded. We were walking slower now, both dreading the moment where we went our separate ways.

"Do you know how it ends?" I smiled as we went up the stairs to my floor.

"Yup." We were at my door now, but I didn't want to leave. Screw friendship, I wanted him to be with me and no one else, for the rest of our lives.

"And how does it end?" He asked with a little bit of hope and curiosity in his voice.

I looked up at him, he was a few inches taller than me. "Like this." I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him close into the best kiss I ever had.

When we finally pulled away and smiled.

"The end."

Or so I thought. Our story didn't end there, but I think that's all you have to hear or well, read.

If I learned one thing it's this:

Basically, when you're young you will without a doubt fall in love and get your heart broken no matter what you do.

It doesn't matter whether you're the smartest person in the world or the dumbest, we're all idiots when it comes to falling in love.

Life is different for everyone. We all go through it in very different ways. But we do have a few things in common. We all go through the drama of high school, we all get our hearts broken and glued back up. There's nothing you can do about it.

And even if this doesn't help, this, dear person reading this, is an idiot's guide to falling in love.